The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo, a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination.

Film Review

Letters from Iwo Jima is one of director Clint Eastwood's best films. Eastwood directed Flags of our fathers, which focused on the Americans during WWII, and Letters from Iwo Jima focuses on the Japanese, our enemies. And to be honest, I found Letters from Iwo Jima to be far more intriguing.So, I already gave you the basic premise of it. The film is told through the eyes of the other side. But what I found endearing was that the film made us look like the bad guys. It also shows how some of the Japanese didn't want to fight and have their regrets.I loved Letters from Iwo Jima. It's a unique, powerful, and heart wrenching masterpiece that should go down among the many great war movies. Actually, its my favorite war movie, I even loved it more than Apocalypse now.Letters from Iwo Jima is a gritty movie, and also a well acted one too. Especially from the film's lead and probably only big star, Ken Watanabe. You sympathize for these characters, and I think that that is…

I'll be honest to tell that I've watched this movie on Youtube not knowing the background of its creation. I first thought that it was Japanese production as most of the dialog was done in perfect Japanese. But as I started watching, I've noticed how many Japanese have commented on this movie, and here seeing almost unanimous appraise from the American audience, I've come to understand that this movie touched the hearts of people on both sides.To give some background on how the war started, Japanese was an up and coming country after defeating the Russian navy in the 19th century, rushing to catch up with the greats of the west. Their model were the Great Britain, Dutch, and the French who've established colonies throughout southeast Asia. Japan understood from their example that colonization was the road to a great country. So in the name of "Great Asian co-prosperity region", they've started to colonize China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other pa…

Coming from the artful direction of Clint Eastwood, I wasn't surprised to see this film was indeed amazing.but after decades of war films, I'm sure it can be hard to make any real impact on the long history of them. Obviously, in the light of the masterpieces created by Kubrick, Spielberg and Stone. As such, "Flags of our Fathers" just didn't do it for me. It was a story that was too easy too follow, dare I say predictable? but then came this marvelous film, and with a very different perspective brung along with it. the view point being that of our 'enemy'. As far as i know, such a thing has rarely been done, if ever. I'm so elated Eastwood actually directed such a production. It will be a truly vivid, terrifying yet symbolic piece of film experience for anyone who sees it.The cast was extraordinarily put together, with one of my favorite actors doing his role beautifully; Ken Watanabe as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. Kazunari Ninomiya was exce…